How to Gap Your Golf Clubs

Knowing exactly how far your golf clubs go isn't just a minor detail - it's one of the most direct paths to shooting lower scores and playing with more confidence. When you stop guessing and start knowing your yardages, you replace doubt with a clear plan on every shot. This guide will walk you through a simple, effective process to map out your own distances, one club at a time, so you can make smarter decisions on the course.

What Exactly is "Gapping"?

In simple terms, "gapping," or creating a "distance matrix," is the process of figuring out the average distance you hit each club in your bag. The goal is to establish predictable and consistent yardage gaps between each club. It's not about forcing every club to go exactly 10 yards further than the lost one, it's about understanding what your real-world gaps are.

Proper gapping eliminates those situations where you have two clubs that fly nearly the same distance, creating redundancy. More importantly, it highlights any "holes" in your set - those awkward yardages where you don't have a comfortable, full-swing club choice. By knowing your numbers, you build a reliable toolkit where every club has a specific job to do.

Why Gapping Your Clubs is a Game-Changer

If you're serious about improving, gapping is non-negotiable. Think about that moment when you're standing over a shot, say 145 yards to the pin. You’re holding an 8-iron, but there’s a little voice in your head saying, "Is this too much? Maybe it's a hard 9-iron." That hesitation often leads to a tentative, uncommitted swing. Gapping erases that doubt.

Here’s what you gain:

• Increased Confidence: When you know your 8-iron carries 145 yards, you can swing with conviction. This "shot commitment" is a massive factor in hitting solid, accurate shots under pressure.
• Better Club Selection: It sounds obvious, but you can’t pick the right club if you don’t know how far it goes. Gapping turns a guess into an informed decision.
• Improved Course Management: Knowing your distances is vital for navigating a hole strategically. It helps you lay up to your favorite yardage, carry hazards with certainty, and hit specific spots on the fairway or green.
• Identifying Set Flaws: The process might reveal that your 4-iron and 5-iron go almost the same distance because of modern loft compression. Or you might find a huge 25-yard hole between your pitching wedge and sand wedge. This information allows you to fix your set by adjusting lofts or adding a new club.

The Simple Tools You'll Need

You don't need a high-tech Tour-pro setup to do this effectively. Gathering your real-world numbers is surprisingly straightforward.

• Your Golf Clubs: Your entire set, from the highest-lofted wedge to your driver.
• A Sleeve of Golf Balls: For the best results, use the same model of ball you typically play with. Different balls can produce different flight and spin characteristics.
• A Distance Measuring Device:
  • The Gold Standard: A personal launch monitor (like a SkyTrak, Mevo+, or TrackMan) is the most accurate way, as it gives you true carry distance.
  • The Great Alternative: A laser rangefinder at a driving range. Simply aim at a specific target and laser it to get the exact yardage to the flag or yardage marker.
  • The Good Option: A GPS watch or app can also work if the driving range markers are accurately measured.
• A Way to Record Your Data: The notes app on your phone, a small notebook, or ideally, a spreadsheet app like Google Sheets.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Gapping Your Set

Set aside an hour at the driving range or an open practice facility. The goal here is honesty and consistency. You’re not trying to hit your absolute "career best" shot with each club, you’re trying to find your stock, reliable yardage - the one you can count on with a normal, 80% effort swing.

Step 1: Get Warmed Up

Don't just jump in and start hammering your 7-iron. Go through your normal warm-up routine. Start with some light stretches, then hit some half-shots with a wedge, and gradually work your way to full swings. You want to be fully loose before you start recording numbers.

Step 2: Start at the Bottom of Your Bag

Begin with your most lofted club, like your lob wedge or sand wedge, and work your way up. Hitting short-irons and wedges first helps you build a solid rhythm and tempo. It’s much easier to transition from a wedge to a 9-iron than it is to go from a driver straight to a sand wedge.

Step 3: Capture the Data for Each Club

Here’s the core of the process. For each club:

1. Choose your target and measure the distance to it.
2. Hit 10 balls with a smooth, repeatable swing. Don't try to go after it. This should be your standard fairway swing.
3. As you hit, focus on the carry distance - where the ball lands in the air, not where it ends up after it rolls out. Carry distance is the most reliable number in golf because it isn’t affected by turf firmness or undulations.
4. Ignore any major mis-hits. If you top, shank, or hit one pure-thin, don't include it in your data set. We all hit them, but they aren't representative of a well-struck shot.

Step 4: Average and Record Your Numbers

After hitting your 10 solid shots with a club, find the average carry distance. For example, if you hit eight good sand wedge shots that landed between 82 and 91 yards, your average carry might be around 86 yards. That’s your number.

Record this number next to the club name. Here's a simple way to format your chart:


Club | Avg. Carry Distance
----------------|---------------------
Lob Wedge (60°) | 75 yards
Sand Wedge (56°)| 86 yards
Gap Wedge (52°) | 101 yards
Pitching Wedge | 114 yards
9-Iron | 128 yards
...and so on


Repeat this process for every single iron and hybrid in your bag. Driver is slightly different - it's often more about maximizing total distance - but it's still good to know your average carry to understand whether you can clear certain hazards.

Reading Your Data and Taking Action

Once you finish, you’ll have a chart that tells a story about your game. Now it's time to analyze it.

Look at the "gaps" between each consecutive club. Ideally, you want to see a somewhat consistent progression, usually between 10-15 yards for irons and sometimes larger for hybrids and woods.

Scenario 1: You Find a Huge Gap

You might see something like this:

• Pitching Wedge: 115 yards
• Sand Wedge: 85 yards

That’s a 30-yard hole in your game! Every shot you face between 90 and 110 yards requires an awkward, half-powered swing. This is a classic case where a gap wedge (often around 50-52°) would fit perfectly, likely giving you a comfortable 100-yard club.

Scenario 2: You Find an Overlap

It's also common to find something like this:

• 4-Hybrid: 185 yards
• 5-Wood: 188 yards

These two clubs perform nearly the same job. Paying a clubfitter to strengthen the loft of your 5-wood or weaken the loft of your 4-hybrid could create better separation. Or, you could remove one of them from your bag entirely, freeing up a spot for an extra wedge or a different utility club that fills a more useful yardage gap.

Mastering the "In-Between" Numbers

Your gapping chart gives you your full-swing yardages, but golf is rarely that perfect. You also need to know how to hit the numbers between your full-swing clubs.

For your wedges, one great technique is the "clock system."

• Full Swing (10 o'clock): This is your stock yardage, where your lead arm gets to about 10 o'clock on the backswing.
• Three-Quarter Swing (9 o'clock): Make some swings where your lead arm only goes back to parallel with the ground (9 o'clock). Go through the gapping process for this shorter swing with each wedge. Your 56° might go 85 yards full, but 65 yards with a 9 o'clock swing.
• Half Swing (8 o'clock): A smaller yet body-driven swing that covers even shorter distances with control.

For your irons, a simple way to take 5-7 yards off a shot is to choke down about an inch on the grip. This effectively shortens the club and gives you that "in-between" distance without having to alter your swing tempo.

Final Thoughts

Gapping your clubs is one of the most productive things you can do for your game. It’s an investment of time that pays off immediately by equipping you with the knowledge needed to make confident, aggressive swings toward your target. This process turns vague hopes into specific plans and gives you control over your aame.

Once you have this data, applying it correctly on the course is the next step. Sometimes, knowing your numbers isn't enough, factors like wind, elevation, and the lie of the ball can make club selection tricky. For these moments, we created tools like Caddie AI. It can give you an instant recommendation on what club to hit and how to play the shot, considering all the real-time variables. This helps you translate your newfound gapping knowledge into smarter, more committed decisions when it truly counts.